Putting your Trust in your Pilot

Debbie Harris
May 2025 • 2 min read

Putting your Trust in your Pilot

In my latest adventure, I took a buzz flight in a helicopter!

At a well-managed operation at Fairoaks Airport in Chobham, I boarded a helicopter and flew a six mile circuit taking in Woking and its environs from the air.

I’m glad I had opted for the five-minute option so that I could ‘test the water’ … as I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the experience – but I really did and it was over far too quickly.

I had a marvellous time (especially since it was a beautifully clear day). BUT – it was windy and in such a small craft it was a somewhat bumpy ride on occasion!

I would highly recommend it – stick it on your bucket list for sure …

As I stepped off the aircraft and was heading back to my car, it occurred to me that every time we board a vehicle as a passenger, we are putting our trust in the driver/pilot completely.

We hope that they have all the appropriate credentials and skills for the task ahead and we enter into passenger-hood without too much thought. The helicopter pilot that day literally had my life in his hands and that’s pretty daunting (for me and for him I imagine!). And yet I barely thought about the 637 things that could have gone wrong during that five-minute flight … until we dropped through a small air pocket and my stomach ended up in my throat …

When it’s all clear skies and plain-sailing; it’s easy to trust whoever is at the helm isn’t it. It’s when the weather turns that all our fears and insecurities pop to the surface.

Trusting your financial adviser can be like that sometimes too … hoping against hope that he or she gave you sound advice and that weathering the storm is part of the process.

The majority of our clients have been with us for long enough to know that their trust is well-placed, but we have some newer clients for whom this is the first ‘storm’ they’ve seen with us. I hope that what you will find is that we are calm and patient and reassuring. All the things a good pilot needs to be!

If you have any concerns or would simply welcome the opportunity to chat things through – please let us know.

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Putting your Trust in your PilotJemima Thomas2025-05-27T10:52:26+01:00

Worrying about money?

Dominic Thomas
March 2025 • 2 min read

Worrying about money?

Admittedly, all of us respond differently to pressure and some of us (if not all of us) create our own. I say this as a slight caveat to the statement I will now make. More than half of those aged over 55 are worried that they will run out of money.

This is the finding of research conducted by Oxford Risk, a rather bright bunch that offer services for modelling, measuring, managing and explaining risk to you our clients. As ever, the sample size of the survey wasn’t vast at just a touch over 1,000 people (all over the age of 55). Only 27% of them were not worried about running out of money in retirement.

It won’t please Gen X, Z or Y that around 12% are worried that they will likely be dependent on their children for financial support in their retirement, which when some reports laud the age of an enormous wealth transfer, clearly this will not be everyone’s experience and I suspect the hoped-for inheritance to finally enable joining the property market may be short-lived. It won’t help if your estate suffers a lot of inheritance tax.

Of course, some of this may be merely a reflection of the current cost of living crisis and inflation which at checkouts and cash registers seems to stubbornly ignore ONS official data. It may have something to do with a growing awareness of the exorbitant cost of care or maybe the apparent fragility of the state of the world.

I would love to be able to tell you that we can provide complete reassurance about the future, but it is of course unknown. What we can do is work with your real spending patterns and plans in conjunction with your existing resources and create a plan to avoid running out of money. This relies on regular reviews and sense-checking of our assumptions and your objectives. The intention is obviously to empower you to make informed decisions and have a high degree of confidence about the future, but no one can actually guarantee this, despite what they may be willing to tell you.

We aren’t afraid to wrestle with reality and construct a viable, sustainable plan for your future that will deliver successful outcomes, albeit within the context of a changing and imperfect world.

You don’t need to be worrying, we have a plan that will alleviate this, this is what we do and have done with great success.

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Worrying about money?Jemima Thomas2025-03-21T15:43:07+00:00

Should advisers fear being black listed?

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Should advisers fear being black listed?

There are numerous benefits of social media. One is the ability of peers in any field to discuss topics and share ideas. Sadly this comes with the inevitable double-edged sword of whether to post under your real name or a pseudonym… or “nom de plume”. This I assume is connected to a fear of being black listed.

Of course there’s a lot to disagree about, and it appears that many will take considerable time to vent and click send. Not always a great choice, I’ve been guilty of it myself. There is a general perception, whether explicit or implied that somehow anything critical of those in power will result in some form of retribution. Hence many publish comments under false names for fear of being “black listed”.

Invariably the problem within my own sector is that of fear of the regulator. Of course on the one hand I think this is quite a good thing, advisers ought to be “afraid” of the regulator. That would really mean that they are surely there to keep people on the “straight and narrow”. So I welcome good, strong regulation – it’s in my interests (and yours). The hope is that strong regulation reduces the potential for people to be ripped off.

A critical voice brings change

On occasion, of course some criticism of the regulator is entirely appropriate (after all is anyone or any organisation perfect?). It is this that advisers fear (good ones too). The concern is rather obvious – raising a critical voice may be met with a sudden barrage of requests for information, which can prove time consuming and frankly unnecessary. I take the view that the regulator needs to be held to account and publish under my name. Frankly it is rare that I am critical of them – my main gripe is invariably a difference of approach to the way investors who have suffered scams or mis-selling are compensated following advice from “bad” advisers.

At present, the system is such that “bad” advisers rip off investors. The product, fund, adviser and their PI cover all fail and the remaining “good” advisers pay the compensation. By remaining, I really do mean a diminishing number. At one point there were about 250,000 “financial advisers” today there are about 22,000. Most advisers pass this cost onto their clients. To date, I haven’t despite a 30-day demand for payment increasing by 67% in 2015 on top of a 69% increase in the previous year! Hard to explain and pass on such fee rises in a period of virtually no inflation!

I don’t think I’m being too radical or inflammatory in my industry comments. This isn’t the 1950’s, McCarthyism has not returned (as far as I can tell). On which note, there is a very good new film out called Trumbo – the true story of a man that was blacklisted by some very unsavoury people in Hollywood. Trumbo was forced to write under a pseudonym to allow him to earn a living and he wasn’t ripping anyone off. I’m not so sure that advisers publishing under pseudonyms is really the same thing at all. I wish I had the creative writing skills of Trumbo! I only stand with him in the sense of being free to write or speak without fear of reprisal.

Oh, and you are welcome to check out my industry comments online at places like New Model Adviser, Financial Adviser, Professional Adviser.. but they are pretty dull and aimed at advisers.

Here is the trailer for Trumbo, you may recognise Bryan Cranston (who plays Walter White in Breaking Bad) and Helen Mirren has a small role, but has you piping venom… well it did for me. It has only just been released here in the UK… its one of the few films that I gave 10/10… but of course I may have been influenced by issues raised here!

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Should advisers fear being black listed?Dominic2025-01-27T16:38:36+00:00